


In the Garden

by thatsoccercoach



Series: Which Door? [21]
Category: Outlander & Related Fandoms, Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: Family Fluff, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-14
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-03-31 03:33:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13966461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatsoccercoach/pseuds/thatsoccercoach
Summary: Claire and Faith spend time together in their wee garden.





	In the Garden

                                                                  

Their garden was the only place where Claire felt even halfway human right now. It was always the right temperature and somehow being surrounded by living things made it easier for her to grow other things. Or to grow humans. She’d never been this big with Faith she mused, glancing over at her still-petite daughter as her hand ran back and forth over the next one. “Any day now, Baby,” she muttered under her breath. “Feel free to come any day.”

Jamie had gone to the store and had suggested that, while he was out, she should rest since she’d been struggling lately to find a position comfortable enough to sleep for any stretch of time. But Faith had woken early from her nap. Claire could hear the small child singing to herself from the crib in the other room in her sweet, gentle voice, and had decided that a visit to the garden would be more restorative that an attempted nap. Faith would have entertained herself, but somehow Claire sensed that she needed these moments with her daughter.

So they’d gone out to the garden. Set behind their small home was their own little bit of green. Claire had planted herbs as soon as she’d realized there was a garden but as the seasons passed she had grown vegetables as well. Though Faith would follow her anywhere in the garden, the vegetables had been a particular delight of hers. Watching her daughter realize that those living, growing things weren’t there for mere decoration but were edible had brought both Claire and Faith particular joy.  

The weather was mild for a day so late in autumn. Faith tramped around the edges of the plots Claire had cultivated all summer and had begun to clear as the weather changed. When she spied something of interest she would crouch and inspect it closely. Her tiny fingers grasped, pinched, and picked small petals and leaves that she brought to her mama along with her questions.

“This Mama. What’s this?” she whispered, holding a flower so close to her face that here eyes nearly crossed.

Claire laughed musically as she rocked back from her hands and knees position, the only position from which she could actually reach things. She’d been pulling dried vines out of the dirt in front of her. “That’s purple heather,” she said as she cupped Faith’s tiny hands in her own.

“Heather, Mama?” she asked again in the repetitive nature of inquisitive toddlers.

“Yes, lovey.” She’d never forget it, Claire knew. Faith didn’t talk much, but when she asked a question, she meant to know the answer forever.

“Thanks!” she chirped then gave Claire a kiss before toddling off once more to continue her observations and discoveries.

Claire had almost completely gotten rid of the unwanted tangle of dead vines before she heard Jamie’s rich, warm voice carry across the green space between them.

“Ah, there are my lasses!” He strided purposefully back to the garden to be near them, kissing Claire soundly then going to where Faith was collecting her bits of nature.

“Look, Da. Please?” She held out her tiny hands full of treasures and began to name them one by one. “Heather, fern, just-moss,” she held out a clump of moss she’d meticulously scraped off a tree. “Mama said, Da,” she nodded, her eyes round and serious, her curls dark and bouncing.

“Oh, aye?” he asked her, examining the specimens. “And where did ye find the moss?”

“Just-moss, Da,” she corrected sagely, albeit inaccurately.

“Aye, the ‘just-moss,’” he smiled over Faith’s head at Claire who was trying to stifle her giggles behind her hands.

“In my garden,” she replied, gesturing vaguely. Apparently the attention to detail that had led her to correct him only moments ago no longer applied to describing the location of one’s discoveries.

Jamie snorted as Faith went back to seek more wee treasures. He reached down to pull his wife to her feet. She rose laboriously, kneading her lower back that always seemed to ache these days.

“Was the bairn restless? Did she no’ let ye sleep then?” His brow furrowed in concern for his wife and the strain she was under. She was the strongest woman he knew but there were days when, under the burden she carried, she looked so fragile.

“No, she’s still now,” she smiled serenely, fingers ghosting over the bump. “Not restless at all. I just wanted to be here with Faith, doing something, creating something.”

“Dinna sell yourself short for all ye are doing.” He smiled in that heartbreakingly sweet way he had. “Ye are creating something.”

His hand protectively joined hers, twined fingers, then swung down between them as they began to slowly walk, hand in hand, in the calm of the garden. Together.


End file.
